Yet another post in 2 Cents Worth that hinted at something I had been playing around with in my mind. The use of the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP in a classroom setting. I’m still waiting on the Opera browser to be released in the United States for the DS. From talking to others, it seems that the PSP just isn’t ready, with the browser being too slow.
A great article, I don’t want to look busy, sums up our preoccupation with being busy perfectly.
Our culture is obsessed with being busy. When’s the last time you asked someone about their job or life and they didn’t use the word busy? It’s worn like a badge of honor. To even hint you might not be busy, conjures up visions of laziness and lack of ambition. As we plan various activities and events for schools, I’ll often hear, “that’s a busy time for schools”. Tell me when it’s not a busy time?
Analyzing Census data shows that being a college graduate is worth $23,000 a year:
“How much is a bachelor’s degree worth? About $23,000 a year, the government said in a report released Thursday.”
An extra ~$1,000 a month isn’t too shabby.
So you’ve upgraded to the newest version of Firefox, but there is that one add-on that you can’t live without. This article shows you three ways to help make your old extensions compatible with Firefox 2.0.
And interesting comment at the Spiral Notebook blog entry I would use technology more if…:
I use and have used technology in my classrooms since 1991, the first day I became a teacher. But the longer I teach, the more I see tech support and adminstration restricting the use of technology in education. School districts shouldn’t be in the business of buying hardware and software anyway. My thinking is that teachers should bring their own technology to school and be paid to do so. That way tech support can’t prevent teachers from exploring software apps which aren’t on the “approved” list. It would be a win-win in that tech support can merely provide connectivity and not have to be concerned about my hardware-software. They don’t directly pay for my car or change its oil, after all.
I don’t understand when this would ever work. A lot of teachers haven’t even been taught what the computer can do, and when someone doesn’t know what the tool can do, they don’t know what questions to ask. In the above comment, if it came to fruition, you would have the teachers that already feel proficient wanting to purchase equipment but can’t afford it while other students with other teachers that don’t see the need getting behind. In our district even if you took the entire technology budget and put that on teacher salaries, it would be worth about $867.
Fire up your browser and head on over to Mozilla’s ftp mirrors to download the latest version of Firefox. Although this version isn’t as monumental as those in the past, it does add a couple of nice features, including spell check in form fields and a built in session manager to restore your browser windows and tabs after you quit or if it crashes.